About half of all Ford dealers across the USA have decided that they won’t sell electric vehicles in 2024. At the same time, those dealers won’t have to pay for additional EV training and equipment that the Blue Oval will require moving forward. The automaker says that almost 90 percent of the population in the country will still live within 20 miles of a dealer that sells Ford EVs.
The relationship between Ford and its dealers regarding how many will sell electric cars starting in 2024 has been a bit of a rollercoaster. In late 2022, about 65 percent (1,920 dealers) had signed up despite the requirement that dealers would need to pony up at least $500,000 for training and equipment. Over the course of the last year, the EV boom has slowed down for Ford.
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Now, it’s confirmed that some 1,550 dealers are still signed up for the Model E program. That’s about half of all Ford dealers in the country. Those who decided not to sign up or who withdrew from the program won’t be what Ford considers “Model E Certified.” That means that they won’t have the same equipment on-site and won’t have the same training to care for electric vehicle service needs.
For its part, Ford doesn’t seem too dismayed by the situation. “EV adoption rates vary across the country and we believe our dealers know their market best,” Ford spokesman Marty Gunsberg told the Detroit Free Press. “As Ford dealers have completed their own local market assessments, enrollments for 2024 are just over 50% of the network, placing 86% of the population within 20 miles of a Ford dealership that can sell and service a Ford EV.”
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Ford has also scaled back its EV plans recently, including downsizing a battery factory under construction, reducing EV spending, and revising down its EV production goals for 2024. As the next 12 months unfold it’ll be interesting to see which dealers end up flourishing and which ones flounder. Each side has made its commitments and now the rest of us get to see how it all plays out.